I'm speaking with Austin Braddock, who is a senior 3D animation major at Pratt Institute. We talk about the 3D animation workflow, company mascots, abstract and psychological spaces in animation, the importance of representation, and acceptance.
This interview was conducted in WPIR's studio on March 1, 2020.
I: Welcome, Austin, to Dezign Skool! Each week I interview a different student in a different major about what it is we do here and why. My name is Isabel and I'm a quote-unquote graphic designer. Because, that doesn't mean anything. I'm here with Austin Braddock, 3D animation major, member of my freshman year squad.
A: We were very tight freshman year.
I: Throwback to Foundation year!
A: Yeah, we did every project together.
I: I'm so glad to have you back, even just for a little bit. But yeah, you can go ahead and introduce yourself!
A: My name is Austin. I'm a senior 3D animation student. I basically only work on my thesis? That’s my entire life. That’s all I do.
I: That's all we ever do now. So, like I said, we know each other from Foundation year. What a great time to meet people and other majors outside of our own.
A: I honestly miss it. I miss our squad, also.
I: I really do. All the late nights… I think actually pulled more –– not all-nighters, but close to all-nighters –– freshman year than I do now.
A: I wish I could relate to that. Sophomore year was such a wake up call. I had so many Five Hour Energy's…. I never had it before that year. It was so bad.
I: Some people are just unaffected by them. And you kind of grow accustomed to them, and they stop working.
A: Yeah, I pull so many all-nighters in animation.
I: So I'm realizing a lot of people that I'm reaching out to to do the show, since I'm trying to get people in different majors, I originally met like from freshman year. Because that's when you're mingling with everyone. Orientation, or Foundation year. But we've kept up throughout the years.
A: Yeah, we still party.
I: We still party, way more than we did in the past. That is like an exponential graph. Whereas maybe sleep for me may have not been…. But, okay, so you are 3D animation major.
A: Yes.
I: I'm going to ask you to define your major and describe what it is you do, either curriculum-wise or project-wise.
A: So, sophomore year is when we actually get into our major and start learning programs and stuff. Our main program is Maya. It’s a very strict learning curve. It's so much to handle. But basically, every semester leading up to our thesis, we work on a short film. It’s supposed to be 30 seconds or so. But my grade –– we're overachievers, and did about a minute.
I: Oh my god, an extra 30 seconds ––
A: –– Yes, it was a lot. Yeah, so we were struggling with learning the program and also making a film. For the first time ever.
I: How long is a film?
A: Well, for thesis right now, we can usually only go up to four minutes. That's so much. I'm doing two and a half minutes for mine. Which is manageable but still obviously a lot of work.
I: Yeah.
A: So we start earlier than other majors, we start our thesis junior year. So we get a year and a half.
I: Because you need that extra time.
A: We really do. Yeah. But a lot of people are struggling to even finish now. I've been doing pretty good with my schedule. So, I'm kind of chilling now. This is the least amount of work I've had to do.
I: What stage are you in right now? Like if you budgeted your time wisely, what exactly are you working on at this moment?
A: If we budgeted time correctly, we should be finishing up renders at this point. And then going into post-production work.
I: What does that consist of?
A: That's compositing and color correction stuff. There's also like different layers you render stuff out from. Yeah, it's all super complicated, and you probably have no idea what I'm talking about ––
I: Different layers like the environment versus the character…?
A: Yeah, and that sort of thing. So it's like putting those pieces together and making them look correct, together. So we should be around that point. But I still have a full set that I need to model and texture.
I: A full set like, a scene? You call it a set? That's cool.
A: Yeah. So my film has four different sets. And one of them I still need to finish. But that's the major work that I need to do, the rest is just finishing up lighting the scenes and then rendering them. But even rendering takes a long time. A one second shot can can take the entire weekend.
I: How do you manage to get that done?
A: It's a lot of scheduling, and making sure you stick to them. Managing your time correctly.
I: So when you're done with a couple seconds, or a scene, and you're like, “time to render,” do you literally have to put a note on the computer that says “I’M RENDERING, DO NOT TOUCH FOR TWO DAYS?"
A: Yeah, I type, “RENDERING FOR THESIS. PLEASE DON’T CANCEL MAYA.” I make sure that they know.
I: Does that mean no one else can use the computer during that time?
A: You can, but it's not going to work out well because Maya is taking up so much of the computer’s processing. Other things will be super slow. But you have to also keep open a timer so that the computer doesn't turn off on you. That's happened so many times. And people cancel your renders because they want to use the computer.
I: That's fucked up.
A: Yeah, it's really messed up.
I: Yeah, the stakes seem really high.
A: Especially as other grades start rendering their projects, us seniors have to fight for computers.
I: Is it one big lab?
A: There's four different labs for 3D students. There's a lot more kids in digital arts now. In the past –– maybe like four years or so years ago ––there used to be a specific lab for seniors, but now there's too many students where they can't do that anymore.
I: That’s awful. When did they make that change?
A: As soon as more people started to apply to this major.
I: Okay, so you said you do like a short film every semester? Is that per class? How many 3D animation classes do you have per semester? Is it one design class?
A: So starting off, every semester we had a studio film class, where we make the film. And then we had a modeling class, where we learned how to model and texture, an animation class, a lighting and rendering class… There's a bunch of different ones, but there's not enough that actually allow you to specialize in a certain thing. So they give you the basics. And like you have to learn a lot of it on your own when you're making your film. So it's mainly the studio film class that really gets you going.
I: Okay. So I guess, all the point of all those classes is to give you the tools to make the short film.
A: Yeah. And they changed the curriculum for us, two years before our year. Before that, the first film that students would do was their thesis. So like, they would have no knowledge of how to make a film.
I: What would they be doing the whole time?
A: I have no idea. Yeah, so they were not great films.
I: So it seems like a positive change they made. Okay, that's good. A lot more love hearing about positive curriculum changes that people like.
A: But now this major is so difficult.
I: It seems really intense.
A: Yeah, but you’re getting good work out of it.
I: That's good. So my first official question is: what led you to this field? Why did you choose to major in 3D animation?
A: Overall it was kind of random. I did art my whole life, and really focused on it in high school. My senior year of high school I took as many art classes as I could. I took four of five of them.
I: You had room to take four or five art classes senior year of high school?
A: Yeah, I took two or three AP art classes, and this advanced digital art class, Graphic Communications… We had a pretty good art program. I liked doing digital stuff. So I chose animation because of that. And I knew Pratt had a Foundation year. So I just went with it, and hoped for the best.
I: Did you animate anything in high school?
A: Really simple stuff. I animated in [Adobe] Photoshop. I don't remember how to do that ––
I: –– Did you do frame-by-frame animation? They do have keyframe animation too, right?
A: Yeah. It was not good.
I: I'm probably totally misusing that term. It is keyframe, right?
A: Timeline?
I: They have the timeline, but you could animate in layers, and they have some pretty good animation tools like [Adobe] After Effects, right? Did you do a bit of both?
A: I never animated in After Effects, past what we did Foundation year. I didn't do that in high school. Just Photoshop. And maybe [Adobe] Illustrator. Or, I might be confusing that with an Illustrator animation freshman year.
I: Oh, I remember that. It was weird, we essentially did frame-by-frame animation in Illustrator.
A: So stupid!
I: Looking back, I would actually love to see that… I should whip out my old hard drive and check it out again.
A: I still use my same hard drive from that year.
I: Well, I do too. I guess, like, whip out the old dusty file folder. It’s the same hard drive. Do you have the G Drive?
A: I have three G Drives. All of them are two terabytes.
I: Yeah, I guess you kind of have to. I can't even imagine how big those files are.
A: They're huge. My thesis file is probably 1.5 terabytes of stuff. It's so much to deal with. And I have different shots on different G Drives. So I have to remember where different stuff is.
I: That’s insane! Sometimes I'll check and see how much space I have in my two terabyte drive and I haven't even made a dent. I can't imagine having one project that takes up the whole thing. That’s horrifying. So I'm kind of curious what you did in your graphic arts class in high school.
A: I think it was called Graphic Communications. We did printmaking, screen printing…
I: Wait, where'd you go to high school?
A: I went to Morris Knowles High School in Rockaway, New Jersey.
I: Was it a really big high school?
A: Our graduating class was 450, or so? 1600 students total?
I: Ok. My high school literally had four art classes you could take. There was one AP art class. And then there was one “multimedia” class, it was called. That's awesome you did printmaking in high school.
A: It was so much fun. I had the class with one of my best friends. We just goofed off the entire time. We also did photo stuff like in the dark lab. We did every project together. Yeah, it was so much fun.
I: That's awesome.
So to kick things off, I have this segment that I've been doing called “Swipe Right/Swipe Left.”
And for anyone unfamiliar, it's the Tinder format. So a right swipe is an acceptance, an approval, a like. And a left swipe is a pass. It’s 3D animation themed. Which I actually kind of struggled to put together. Because it was kind of hard for me to think outside of animated children's stuff… so, this is my best effort. Alright, so the first item is: Blender. Have you ever animated in Blender?
A: I have not.
I: You haven't? Wow. Well, I do know a couple of [Communications Design] people who are trying to learn it. I also googled popular 3D animation software and Blender was right up there with Maya. So I was kind of shocked to see that.
A: At least, we don't have it at Pratt. So that may be why.
I: Yeah, it's not an automatic thing. The next one is Cinema 4D. Have you used that?
A: I have not used it, but I know that it has the same mechanisms as Maya, so I would be fine to use it.
I: Cinema 4D was the bane of every ComD student’s existence sophomore year. For whatever reason, they threw that program into the mix of this digital prototyping class we had to take. It really split the room, a lot of people resented having to do that. And a couple people were like, “oh, this is actually really cool.”
A: It sucks that you had to do it.
I: Yeah, yeah. It was a three week, four week thing. So it wasn't terrible. But personally, I realized through that project, like… I don't think my brain can operate in three dimensions. It was so bizarre.
A: One thing I appreciate about my department, with the films that we get to do every semester, it's truly whatever we want to do. We have complete freedom to do what we want. While, I've heard with ComD you are forced to do very specific work
I: Especially in the earlier years. Because they were really just trying to, I mean –– I do appreciate this about ComD. They were trying to give us different tools for our toolkit by showing us how to use UI prototyping software, and 3D animation software. I'm thankful for that. So the next one is: Maya. Swipe right, or swipe left, or super like…? How do you feel about Maya, as a program?
A: Maya constantly crashes. Constantly. You have to always save and, well, you can never do. You can lose hours of work. And sometimes things are corrupted and will never open again. It’s essential, so I have to love it, but I hate it.
I: Have you guys ever worked in any other software? Or were you Maya or bust?
A: Some students. But I only work in Maya for 3D modeling. Some students use Unreal, where you can do live rendering. I've used it like a couple times. Okay. Some students are doing their films in Unreal. I think there is one class for it, but it's not offered very often, so I couldn't get into it.
I: The next one is a little different: Disney+.
A: I don’t have it. I would have it, if I didn’t have to pay for it.
I: I think it's very interesting. I did the free week or whatever. And I kind of crammed in everything I wanted to watch. And then I was like, “okay, I think I'm good now.” I watched everything I wanted to in a week.
A: I don't see the purpose of having it… long term. Like, what are you going to do with only Disney stuff?
I: I know, right? I guess they’re getting into sequentially released stuff. Like The Mandalorian, there's like a new episode, every week or something. So they're kind of hooking people that way. It's kind of like cable, ironically. I was just curious if you had looked into that at all.
A: I'm definitely not gonna buy it.
I: Okay, the next one is Pixar.
A: Definitely swipe right. Yeah. I love Pixar. I still have not seen Toy Story 4.
I: Me neither.
A: But, it won the Oscar.
I: I have very mixed feelings about Toy Story 4 as a concept. It didn't need to happen. I'm sure it's good. I don't know. I'm exhausted. Anyways:, as a sub question: the “arc of Pixar,” over the years. From the “Pixar Renaissance” to now…. What's a recent Pixar movie you've seen? I'm trying to think of the most recent one. Inside Out… wasn't that like three years ago? I'm trying to think of what has come out since then. Onward is the new one. That literally came out yesterday. I’m not itching to see it.
A: Yeah, I'm not as excited to see Pixar stuff nowadays. I'll watch them and I know so much work went into them, and they’re beautiful. I’ve never had an urge to see them now. I guess it's because I'm getting older. I have different views of what I want to see. Not that I don't love Disney and Pixar, who doesn't love them? But I’m not as excited to see the newer stuff.
I: I have the same experience now. I find that I'm not itching to see something quite as much, but when I do get myself to a theater, once I'm there I'm like, “Oh shit, this is incredible work.” Like, Inside Out. I went with my younger cousin to see that. I was like, “I don't know, the trailer wasn't that great…” And then I was in there, bawling, thinking, “this is fucking amazing.”
A: They always get you
I: They got the magic formula down. Have you seen the trailer for the new one called Soul?
A: No.
I: It’s a man, walking, and he falls down a storm drain or something, and he suddenly in this weird space. Not purgatory, but maybe in between life and death or something. It looks very abstract.
A: I love abstract, weird stuff.
I: You should check it out. I recently saw a trailer for it in theaters. Yeah. Okay, so Pixar: generally a right swipe. This next one is a fuck marry kill. Alright so: Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney.
A: I would marry Disney.
I: Why?
A: You just… grew up with Disney. You trust them.
I: Like the girl next door.
A: I would fuck Nickelodeon. Kill Cartoon Network.
I: Disney as a corporation… I don't know. I honestly don’t know that much about Cartoon Network nowadays.
A: I think of them as Ed, Edd, ‘n Eddy.
I: What else was even on Cartoon Network? It was all the weird, kind of experimental….
I: Yeah! I think they really were pushing boundaries back in the day. I don't know what they're up to now. So I was at South by Southwest three years ago, because I was in Austin, and I was doing all the free stuff. And one of the free events was the premiere of one of their new shows: We Bare Bears. Have you heard of that one?
A: No.
I: It's just three bears, that walk on top of each other. I was sitting there, watching this pilot… I don't think I got it. I think I'm either too old or just… it was so bizarre. But even struck me as kind of experimental. And strange, kind of minimalistic in some ways. But as a kid, I didn't even have Cartoon Network as a channel. i think there was one glorious year where our cable package had Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network. And so I crammed it all in. So I was curious about what you thought.
A: I remember coming home from elementary school every day with my younger brother, running to our TV to watch Avatar: the Last Airbender. That was Nickelodeon.
I: Yeah. What else? Oh SpongeBob, obviously. That’s the holy grail of Nickelodeon. So, in my quote unquote “research” for this list, I was thinking, “where do 3D animated things come up in our lives” and it occurred to me there's this whole world of 3D animated company mascots. Or product mascots…
A: Mucinex…
I: Yeah! That was literally the first one that came to my mind. And I don't remember the name of the studio… but there's this one that animates all of them. So, as a whole, the concept of 3D animated product mascots: is it a swipe right or swipe left? They're so weird, right?
A: I don't know. I’d probably, like, double click on my iPhone and swipe out of the Tinder app. I mean, I’ll probably be doing that kind of stuff.
I: Yeah, I was gonna ask if you would ever do that kind of stuff. I mean, it’s work. I wonder how well that pays. Like if you work at the studio, and you're animating, like, the Geico Gecko…
A: It's interesting how before I was doing this kind of stuff, I wouldn't even think twice about seeing that kind of commercial on TV. But now I look at it and try to figure out how they do everything.
I: What is the product mascot you're most fascinated with, animation-wise.
A: Recently my Professional Practice teacher showed us his work on the Mucinex guy. So, that’s the main one I can think of.
I: I'm kind of fascinated with the Cricket Wireless fluff balls.
A: Oh, Aflac.
I: True! The Aflac duck is so stiff, though. I almost wonder if it's a puppet sometimes. I’ll pull up a picture of the Cricket Wireless guys. The way they animate the hair fascinates me. Oh, I wish I didn't look this up. They’re actually animated really well.
A: Some of the m&m commercials are pretty good.
I: Those are pretty iconic. Yeah. Shoutout to the lesbian m&m. Do you know about this?
A: No!
I: So, this was circulating maybe a year ago. The m&ms Twitter account tweeted this image of the green m&m holding hands with the new brown m&m at a beach. And the caption was like, “Miss Brown and I hardly ever get any alone time.” And everyone was like… hold the fuck up… is the brown m&m canonically lesbian? Are they both? Are they queer? What's going on? It was so funny and it was close to the brown m&m’s debut. Do you remember when she started appearing on the packages?
A: Yeah. We love inclusion.
I: We love inclusion. We love to see. I just thought that was so funny. I really wanted to be the brown m&m for Halloween.
A: That would be so fun.
I: I was trying to piece it together, like, “how would I actually construct this?” I don't know…
A: Did you go out for Halloween?
I: I did. Oh, well we went to the November 1st party, but we did like lame costumes. I was a robber, which I totally stole from Miles Holland. He was going to a party and had just a beanie, the key chain on his belt, and fingerless gloves, and I was like, “okay, that's a costume.” But but I also attended the Halloween costume contest, I was staffing, and you won! Shout out. Congratulations. I was my own “Tethered” from Us. So I had the red jumpsuit, I bought the big golden scissors, I had the sandals… and I just got rid of my eyebrows for the night. That was it. I just happened to have a red jumpsuit, and then the movie came out… I was like, “fuck, I'm not gonna be able to wear this now. People are gonna think I'm insane, trying to recreate this movie....” But… 3D animated mascots. The next one on my list is baby nut. Do you know about Baby Nut?
A: No.
I: So, this was some weird publicity stunt that Planters Peanuts facilitated. A couple months ago they announced on Twitter, “we're sorry to say that Mr. Peanut has died” and they were just trying to get everyone to retweet things like “rest in peace Mr. Peanut” or whatever. And when the Super Bowl came around, they released this ad that took place at Mr. Peanut’s funeral. And it was interrupted by the growth of this peanut plant, and a baby peanut emerged… and essentially they tried to get a rebirth of Mr. Peanut, in the wake of baby Yoda, and Groot. I'm sure they saw the success of all the baby characters… so they tried to get “Baby Nut” trending on Twitter. And they knew what they were doing with that word choice. They knew people would be talking about it because it was just so silly.
A: I do not have a Twitter. I don’t know what’s happening there.
I: It's a game changer. In case you want to be in-tune to this type of shit. It's garbage.
A: Yeah, I need to get a Twitter specifically for that.
I: All right, thank you for playing Swipe Right/Swipe Left. We didn't do a lot of swiping.
Okay, so I want to hear a little bit about what you're working on right now: your thesis. I guess that's probably taking up all your time.
A: Yeah, I tried to do one project outside of it. And I had to stop.
I: So I want to know what you're working on, what's it all about?
A: Yeah. I wrote down a brief of why I wanted to make it. So basically, my film is about a defining pivotal moment of a mother and son’s relationship. It deals with gender expression, queerness and the innocence of it. I basically want to show that queerness is pure, inherent, and real. So I have the son and mom character, and the son is dressing up in his mom's heels and makeup. And the mom comes back to the house and catches him dressed up like that. It’s a psychological breakdown of how he feels about the situation. So it shows his difficulty with expressing who he is in front of other people. And the mom unconditionally loving him, consoling him.
I: Yeah. representation matters! So the m&m was a perfect segue into this conversation…Yeah, that's really exciting! How does it end?
A: Yeah, it ends with the mom hugging the son. When he’s confronted by his mom, he goes into this abstract space. And he's basically in like, the worst moment of his young, young life.
I: Yeah. How old is the character?
A: I based him off of like a 12, 13 year old.
I: That's a good age. I mean, that's when we really start to experiment with who we want to be.
A: Yeah, this is basically just my story.
I: Is it exactly how –– did that moment ever happen, where you had a parent like walk in?
A: Basically. But I also ran around my house with like, a shirt on my head, pretending it was a long wig. And I would play with my mom's curlers, all that. I was always doing that kind of stuff. But this came from me imagining if I was caught in that way. So there's a lot of influences from my own story. He breaks down, and his mom kind of brings him out of that headspace and consoles him. It ends with them hugging, and he sees that she accepts him.
I: Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see that abstract space that you're describing. What would you say that's a representation of, just being in your own head?
A: Yeah, overthinking and being in your own world. Going to your safe space. And that space being fueled by outside things that force you to be there.
I: How's it going? Have you faced any frustrations, or have you changed anything? Did you find anything unexpected along the way?
A: There have been a lot of changes. I cut off a lot of time so I could actually finish the project. For our thesis, we have presentations twice every semester. A presentation for midterms, and then at the end of the year. We've had that since junior year. Two presentations ago, we had a critique in front of other professors. And this specific guy’s critique was bad for basically everyone. This professor, like, called us out.
I: For not having enough? Or what?
A: I don't know, I feel like he wanted to flex or something. He didn't ask me specific stuff about my project. He asked, “what are you passionate about? I don't see where you're passionate in this project. I don't see how this relates to you, or anything personal in your life.” And I was like… this is who I am, this is what I did. This is personal. This is what I want to do. Yeah. I don't know. I was shocked by that.
I: That’s very confrontational to have someone be like, “I don't see that you're passionate about this…”
A: There was nothing constructive about it. I was like, well, you're just making me cry.
I: Is there anything that you've been looking at, or fascinated with lately in the world of animation? Maybe in looking for inspiration for this project?
A: I’m usually drawn to things that are thought provoking, psychological stuff. I watch a lot of psychological thriller movies outside of animation stuff. That's kind of where I wanted to go with mine. Really making it focused on his mindset, and how he's feeling at this moment. But I'm drawn to a lot of abstract animation and abstract work.
I: Do you have any examples of ones you really love?
A: There are some really weird films. I don't know how to pronounce some of them because it's in a different language. Yeah. But, a more well known one is Coraline. And I grew up watching Alice in Wonderland. I also consider Pinocchio really weird. Yeah, it was really scary. Have you seen the live action one? It's so weird. I was obsessed with it. It's super old. It's terrifying, but I loved it.
I: I just looked it up, and one of the top results is a Reddit that's called “Thanks, I Hate It.” I'll check that out. So, other interesting examples of psychological spaces in animation... Oh, did you see any of the nominated short film animations for the Oscars?
A: Yeah, “Hair Love.”
I: Did you see the one about dementia? I thought of that when you were talking about representing different psychological conditions in an abstract way, it was beautiful.
A: I love stuff like that. And Hair Love, another form of representation. Yeah, it's so good. I cried.
I: I cried within the first couple seconds because I was like, “some kid is watching this…” It was incredible. Anything else? Oh, is there anyone or any particular studio? I mean, I guess a lot of animators aren’t really known for their individual work quite as much, because you really have to work in a big team...
A: It’s mainly Hayao Miyazaki that's known individually. I also grew up watching all of his stuff. He was super influential.
I: Did you have a favorite?
A: I have probably seen Spirited Away like, at least 100 times. I’d watch it every time I went to visit my grandparents in the car ride there. Yeah. My brother is the one that showed me Coraline.
I: How old is your brother? Was he older?
A: He’s 26. Five years older.
I: That’s the difference between me and my younger brother.
A: He showed me Coraline and Howl’s Moving Castle. Those like two huge movies from my childhood, like later childhood, kind of going into my teen years that pushed me towards wanting to animate. They’re really different from 3D, because they’re 2D, but yeah.
I: Yeah. So it maybe wasn’t the look that drew you in, but the storytelling.
A: The look more so for Coraline.
I: Oh, true. Because that is 3D in a sense, stop motion. I guess that's a little closer to what you're doing now.
A: Final look-wise, yeah.
I: Yeah, I think there's something about being in a car, going somewhere, and having this ritualistic movie-watching experience. I think I can think of about four movies like that for me. You know, seeing something over and over and over again… it's in your bloodstream at that point.
A: And it's weird to see it again after so many years. You see it in a different way. Back then, you're younger, so you don't pick up on as much stuff. Yeah. And now I can appreciate how much work went into it. The logistics of everything.
I: If you could work on anything, and you have the money and the time and the support, what would you make?
A: I would make some really weird stuff. With my film, I really wanted to tell this story. But I really love doing super abstract stuff. So I'd love to do more of that. I also really want to work with other people. In my department, we only do stuff solo. There's been one class where I did a group project. I did it with one of my friends, and it was like, the most fun I've had. Because you can work off of other people's talents, and make something even better than you can make on your own. So I'm excited for that aspect of going into the actual field.
I: Me too, I'm ready to work on a team. It’s really satisfying when you complete something with a group of people.
A: Yeah, it can obviously go very wrong, though…
I: It's got to be a good group of people.
Do you have a dream job in mind right now? Is there a certain place you want to be?
A: There's a lot that I want to do. I'm super interested in a bunch of different aspects of 3D animation. So a lot of people in this field will choose a specific avenue to specialize in, like animation or lighting or modeling. There's a bunch of different places that you can go.
I: Do you mean like, character animation specifically?
A: Yeah, I basically want to at least try all of that. There's also people that can be generalists. I basically want to stay in New York, and do everything if I can. But I'd also love to work for bigger companies like Pixar, DreamWorks. But I really just want to try everything.
I: Yeah, that's a good goal to have.
A: Because you never really know until you're actually doing it if you're gonna like it or not. So I just want to try every aspect at least for a little while, just until I know exactly what to do.
I: We were talking a little bit about Spirited Away and Coraline, but:
Is there one quintessential piece of work that really affected you growing up?
A: I would say Alice In Wonderland.
I: Why? What was that like for you?
A: I feel like it just had all the aspects that I now admire. It was abstract, different, weird, beautiful.
I: So one last question, while we have these last couple of minutes… I sort of tacked this on and didn't warn you. But for the seniors that I'm interviewing, I'm asking:
How do you think you have changed, from entering and now leaving Pratt?
A: I’ve changed so much. Even just physically. Have you seen pictures of us freshman year? I look like a different person.
I: There was a lifetime ago.
A: I'm much more open now. If you asked me to do this freshman year I would not. Growing up, in high school, even, I was super in the closet. I didn't talk about anything. And when I got here, I promised myself I would be out. I would be open, tell my story, do whatever. And that first year was me starting to do that and feeling okay. And now I just don't give a shit. I’ll wear heels to class, my makeup fully done.
I: I absolutely see that. This has been really great, sitting down with someone and reflecting on that. We're all totally different people. In such a good way.
A: It's crazy.
I: So much growth can happen in four years. All right. Thank you so much for being here.
A: This is fun!
I: I’m so glad we got to talk.